


Bringing you Home

by Rogersruinedmylife



Series: Flowers in the Fire [2]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Angst, Daisy Buckley, Eddie is soft for one Evan Buckley, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Evan Buckley is a great father, Family Feels, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Intimidation, M/M, Past Abuse, Past Violence, Pre-Relationship, Recovery, Team as Family, no beta we die like men, reclaiming sense of self
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:15:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23741419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogersruinedmylife/pseuds/Rogersruinedmylife
Summary: The older man’s words ran through his mind.Live.All he had thought about for so long was survival.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Ali Martin, Evan "Buck" Buckley & Maddie Buckley, Evan "Buck" Buckley & Original Female Character(s), Evan “Buck” Buckley & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Evan “Buck” Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Series: Flowers in the Fire [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1687051
Comments: 16
Kudos: 165





	Bringing you Home

‘Mr. Kendall, if you could just please listen to what I have to propose to you, it could make you very rich and very famous’, the lawyer sitting in a chair at the foot of his hospital bed begged, his beady eyes fixed on Evan’s face.

After a week in the same hospital room, staring at the same four walls and trying not to panic every time and woke in the dark, the last thing he wanted was to listen to the slimy, shark-like lawyer rattling statistics and figures at him.

Every few hours he had to deal with the lingering feeling of being locked in his ‘bedroom’ after hours of brutal sexual assault, beatings and threats on his daughter’s life.

Multiple times he had been woken from night terrors, bile rushing up his throat as his main nurse tried to rub his back, but every touch was painful. Every touch was a reminder of years of abuse and pain.

In those waking moments, when his hands shook and all he could see was Doug, lurking in the corner of the room. That sick smirk on his face as he watched, as he sold his body, the body of the man he had sworn to God to love and protect.

In those moments all he could feel was the ghost of hands on his hips, on the back of his head holding him down. He often woke choking as if his face was being pressed into a pillow, airways clogging with dust and tears clinging to his lashes.

Last night had been one of those nights.

He’d been alone for the first time since he had been saved by his sister and her hot firefighter friend. Since his baby girl had been able to see daytime and a world outside of the makeshift brothels and hotels that his abusers operated out of.

Maddie had taken as much time off as she could, never leaving his side. Her previous experience as a nurse making her a ferocious and vicious defender of his entire being when doctors and psychiatrists came to poke and prod at him. Her tiny hand had clutched his bruised one, soft and fierce. Her eyes burning with an anger unknown to her sunny disposition as she sat with him through his initial statements to police and medical staff.

Ali had been just as fierce. She had fought as hard as she could to be allowed to stay in the room with Evan. He had been in awe of her once more, of her strength. She had stood, hands on hips and glared down anyone who demanded she return to a separate room. She had spat fire and rebuttals, stating that separating her and Daisy from Evan would impact negatively on both their mental health and physical healing. It wasn’t until a stern older Doctor gave her an ultimatum; since she was not married to Evan, she could with return to a room alone and have Daisy removed from her if her mental health was being threatened, or she could keep her daughter with her and visit Evan between her own appointments and Daisy’s.

The choice had been clear to both of them.

No one was taking Daisy from either of them after they had fought so hard to protect her from the harsh reality she had been born into.

That had left him alone, and even as a teenager, he had never done well when left alone with his thoughts. His insecurities had been waves and him a drowning man. His fingers scrambling to find a hold. His thoughts overwhelmed him and now, now he had new terrors to fill the spaces of his mind.

Every flicker of light cast shadow across the walls, painting imagines of the horrors he had witness. Sometimes it was things he was forced to watch them do to Ali, beatings she had suffered due to his rebellions.

His mind played a movie reel of faces he failed to save, their screams, the looks in one of the older boys’ eyes as he stared at Evan. He had tried to protect Evan when it had begun, he had been so small and scared for his age. Nathaniel had tried to draw eyes and hands away from him. He had handed him a wad of cash and shoved him out the door of a moving car once, trying to free him. It had ended with Evan bound and gagged, whipped and broken as he watched them use, abuse and then strangle Nathaniel until the light left his eyes.

He had been covered in sweat, pale and shaking when a nurse had come to check on him around 5am. She had taken one look at him, disappeared out the doorway and returned with a cup of herbal tea and sat with him for an hour. He had tried to ask her if she had to check on other patients, but the words had been stuck in his throat, buried under his trauma.

She had simply smiled at him, and stated, ‘My shift is finished. I can stay here as long as you need sweetheart’.

She had sat with him until dawn, simply remaking tea and keep watch. Assuring him he was safe every time he woke panicking. She had put him at ease.

Ease which had quickly disappeared at once he was settled after appointments, Daisy napping in his arms, her little head buried in his neck while she clutched his shirt, and this lawyer had burst through his hospital room doors. Greasy smile and hair, beady shark like eyes and a predatory aura that set every nerve in Evan’s body into fight or flight mode as he was trapped under his sleeping daughter.

Daisy shifted in his arms, whimpering as the lawyer got excited over some figure that had been awarded by the court, drawing him back to the present.

‘I am not interested in any legal moves right now’, Evan stated in a whisper, hand playing with the dark curls of his daughter hairs.

The lawyer sighed, giving him a look that was cutting. It projected the opinion that Evan was a tiny insignificant pain in this man’s day. That he was simply too young and traumatized, too stupid to understand his own torture or what he could do with it.

‘Mr Kendall, I know you are young, and have been through an awful ordeal for possibly years, but you have to understand what is to gain here for you, and your daughter’, the lawyer, drawled, speaking slowly as if he was actually explaining this to Daisy.

‘You don’t want your daughter to grow up thinking her daddy is a victim. By filing the lawsuit against these suspected hotels that aided in your rape and trafficking you can provide a good life for her. Otherwise, you are simply a traumatized twenty-five-year-old man with a high school diploma and a nursing degree in pediatric care with no means to raise a child or home to return to’, he smirked, standing and moving closer to Evan.

He could feel his heartrate picking up, the monitor still attached to him jumping erratically as the man came closer, leaning over him. He curled towards his side unconsciously, trying to shield Daisy from his view, his instincts demanding he run, that he take Daisy as far away from this stranger and his beady eyes.

‘I would hate for you to become another statistic Evan’, the lawyer cooed, hand moving to reach out to touch Evans forehead, ‘A boy like you, alone and afraid, they typically end up supporting themselves with what they know. They disappear into their abuse, and I wouldn’t like you to revert to who you were, Spot’.

Evan could feel his stomach drop. Acid like bile burning his throat as it began to rise, his hands trembling as he clutched Daisy closer. Tears burned and it his eyes and he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t speak as the lawyer pressed a thumb against his birthmark softly.

He knew him.

He recognized those eyes.

That soft touch to his birthmark.

He was going to be sick.

*

Eddie felt nervous. He felt stupid about feeling nervous, but he couldn’t stop the butterflies in his stomach as he pulled into the hospital car park.

It was ridiculous to feel nervous about visiting your co-workers very attractive but traumatized brother and his adorable child in the hospital a week after pulling them from a horrific fire and situation.

He took a deep breath as he turned off the engine. Eyes fixed on the building before him. It was just as intimidating and haunting as it always was.

Too many memories of bad calls, Chimney’s accident, of his late wife’s blood dried and flaking on his hands as he held the impersonal plastic packet containing the little possessions, she had had that weren’t ruined by blood. The memories of Chris being wheeled away from him, so tiny and fragile looking as he cried for his parents, Shannon’s head buried in his neck as they tried to stay strong for their little boy.

Hospitals were too often a place of horror and death for Eddie, but even that had begun to change in the last week. Just from walking the floor where the victims of the fire were being housed and treated had given him a new hope. Throughout his visit he had seen reunions that brought tears to his eyes, parents, siblings and spouses reunited. He’d watched as one woman had simply held her husband in the hallway as he cried, begging her to leave him and forget him because he was so broken from what had been done to him. She had simply cupped his cheeks, looked him in the eyes and told him she never stopped looking for him. That she was strong enough to support them both until he could stand tall again and that she loved him.

It had warmed his heart to see such love and joy spring from what was unraveling to be a deeply dark and disturbing case.

One of the most heart warming sights he had witness was still the unbridled joy and love that had taken over the panic and pain on Evan’s face when Ali had brought his daughter into the room. Eddie had gone home that night, kissed his sons sleeping forehead and fallen asleep beside him for the first time in over a year. His mind replaying the way Evan had cradled his daughter as if she was the most precious thing in the world to him. The way those big ocean blue eyes had lit up as the words ‘Dada’ had fallen from the small girls’ lips, his bruised faced breaking into a wonderful and heart skipping smile.

It had been obvious that Evan loved that little girl with everything she had and Daisy, with her brown curls and Evan’s eyes, loved him just as consumingly as a four-year-old loved their parent.

It had broken his heart to leave them, to removed himself from the bubble of love that exuded from the two, despite the fact that he was a stranger with no reason to be there.

He could still recall the way Evan had called to him softly as he turned to exit the room, a gentle, ‘hey hot fireman’, causing him to pause in the door way and turn back towards the pair on the bed. Evan had simply looked at him, gratitude obvious between the tiredness and stress in his baby blues, and whisper ‘Thank you’. He’d looked down at Daisy who was watching Eddie with those curious eyes still and he had understood exactly what he was thanking him for. Not for saving his life, but for helping save Daisy and Ali.

Eddie had nodded at him, knowing all too well that Evan and he were cut from the same cloth. They would both gladly put their lives down if it meant their child grew to live another day.

Daisy was part of the reason he had driven to the hospital today. Maddie had complained on shift that due to the nature of the crime and rescue; everyone was confined to the one floor for protection. Not everyone relating to the running of the establishment had been caught and they wanted to protect the survivors from any further attempts to remove them from being able to provide evidence and witness statements for the LAPD and FBI. This meant that Daisy wasn’t able to avail of the books and toys in pediatrics, and no matter how sweet a child she was, she was quickly getting bored.

That was where Eddie came into play. He had sat down with Christopher and asked him how he felt about lending some of his older books and toys to a little girl who couldn’t leave the hospital. Chris had simply looked at him with those kind eyes of his and a smile on his face, he’d asked his dad for a duffle bag and Eddie had watched, once again stunned by how mature and loving his son was as he began to pack toys and books, and even a teddy bear he had been gifted by his grandparents during one of his surgeries.

He had handed the bag to Eddie, smiling as he said, ‘You told me Mr. Bear would keep…keep me safe while in hospit’l. Maybe it’ll keep her safe too’.

And now here he sat, bag resting in the seat beside him as he stared up at the hospital building, warring with himself over whether or not he had a right to visit the father and child housed within it.

He knew from Maddie that he was on a list of those allowed to access the wing of the hospital Evan was residing in still. Legally, he was allowed to visit Evan, but even though the younger man had been grateful and even a little flirty with him, however he was a survivor of violent trauma and may not want anyone other than his sister, girlfriend and child around him during recovery.

Eddie sighed, letting his forehead rets on the hot leather of his steering wheel before deciding that he was doing this. That if he were in a position like Evan’s, anyone offering help in entertaining a stressed out four-year-old would be a welcome guest.

Grabbing the bag, he quickly made his way into the hospital, signing the visitors log and providing ID before being walked by an officer to the floor Evan was on. He passed Ali in the hallway who paused to give him a bright smile and reached out to squeeze his wrist as he walked past before a Doctor appeared in a doorway, beckoning her in.

Eddie gave her a reassuring smile before continuing towards the room he knew Evan and Daisy would be tucked away in.

What he wasn’t expecting when he opened the door to the room was Evan, all six foot two of him, to be curled on his side. His blue eyes wide with panic and pupils dilated in a way that screamed flight and escape. He could just make out Daisy’s sleeping form tucked against his chest, a large trembling hand cradling her head gently, as if to protect the sleeping child from what was happening in the room.

Evan’s EKG machine was beeping wildly but not high enough to send an alert to his nurses.

A man loomed over him. One Eddie recognized from a fire drill gone wrong. Eddie had never forgotten his beady eyes, the greasy smile or the overwhelming feeling of wrongness he had gotten when the man had tried to pray on confused and disorientated workers from the building they had evacuated.

Chase Mackey was a disgusting human being, and he was standing tall over Evan’s prone form, fingers pressing into the birthmark above his eyes.

Evan looked on edge, as if he was going to start crying any second or throw up from the almost green tint to his pale skin.

Anger burned through Eddie’s very core as he processed the sight in front of him. As he watched this young man that had suffered through years of abuse, who had stood strong against his abusive husband while a gun was pressed to his head and a hand tightened around his neck, was reduced to fight or flight in a place where he was meant to be safe.

Eddie glanced out the door from his position in the doorway. He quickly caught the eye of a security officer at the nurse’s station, jerking his head towards the room. The officer contemplated him before Eddie threw him a strained looking, gesturing to the room, leading him to nod and grab his radio.

Assured of support, Eddie face the room again where Chase was still leaning over Evan’s prone form.

‘File the lawsuit Evan, convince the others to form a class action, I don’t care which, or become another lost statistic and watch as your little girl is placed in foster care’, Chase laughed, leaning further over the other man I the bed.

Eddie dropped the bag with a loud thump, the books colliding with the tiled floor from with the bag.

Evan jumped at the sound, eyes wild and distressed as they settled on Eddie, a hint of relief flooding his scared gaze.

‘Mackey’, Eddie barked, using very once of army voice he still had buried within him, watching as the lawyer straightened, turning a glare on him, ‘Step away from Evan. Security has been notified that you are trespassing. I suggest you gather your stuff and leave’.

Chase rolled his eyes, hands tugging his suit jacket, straightening it. He was trying to make himself look untouchable, but in Eddie’s eyes he simply looked guilty.

‘Firefighter Diaz, this is between my client, Mr. Kendall and I. Your services are not needed at this time’, he smirked, settling a hand on the chair beside Evan’s bed.

‘Evan’, Eddie asked softer, not tearing his gaze from Chase’s, keeping his focus on him and not the young man in the bed and his daughter, ‘Is he your legal representation?’.

Eddie could feel movement behind him, suggesting security had arrived to back him up.

Evan shook his head slightly, eyes still fixed on Eddie pleadingly, ‘No, and I asked him to leave’.

Security began to move forward, two officers grabbing Chase’s arms to escort him from the room as he protested against them.

‘Mr. Kendall, it would be unwise-’ he began but was cut off quickly by Evan stating softly and clearly, anger tinging his voice, ‘It’s Buckley. I never wanted Doug’s surname and I have legal representation. Please make him leave’.

Security wasted no time in dragging Chase from the room, shoving him into the hallway where Eddie could see one of Athena’s co-workers down by the nurse’s station, watching the situation unfold.

A choked noise drew Eddie’s back to the man in the bed. Now that the threat had been removed, he could see the overwhelming fear and relief on the younger mans face as he tried to blink back tears. Daisy was still napping in his arms, although she was beginning to shift and whimper in her sleep, sensing her father’s distress.

Without even thinking, Eddie was across the room and sitting on Evan’s bed, arm wrapping around Evan’s shoulders and tucking him into his side. He stroked the arm wrapped around Daisy softly, letting Evan cry as the weight of the day and his long night finally caught up with his tired brain.

‘It’s okay dulzura, let it out. You’re safe Evan, it’s okay’

*

Ali had been panicked when her psychiatrist had held her after her session, simply stating that there had been an incident with a lawyer attempting to intimidate one of the male patients on their ward.

Her stomach had sunk, sweat forming on her palms as she rubbed them against the sweatpants the hospital had provided. She knew with every motherly instinct inside her body that it was related to Evan. The younger man was a magnet for danger and people with ill intentions.

Her mind had instantly turned to Daisy, who was currently with her father while Ali had he mandated appointment with Dr. Frost.

It wasn’t until Dr. Frost had returned to the room, reassuring her that no one had been harmed and the lawyer had been handed over to the LAPD to be investigated in relation to trespassing that she had been released back to her room.

She had quickly grabbed Daisy’s blanket before making her way towards Evan’s room, side stepping Doctors and Nurses as she went, ignoring the other survivors that nodded to her. Her mind still panicked with the thought of either Evan or Daisy having been harmed mentally by this lawyer as she suspected they had been.

This suspicion was confirmed the moment she entered Evan’s room.

Evan was tucked into the side of the second firefighter that had carried her out of the warehouse, his eyes closed, and face scrunched in an exhausted sleep. His closed eyes were red rimmed and dried tear tracks were visible on one of his cheeks.

Daisy was sitting halfway on the firefighter’s lap and half on her father, her side and head resting on Evan’s front, head tucked under Evan’s head. She was blinking up at the firefighter, smiling with an occasional laugh as he read to her from a children’s book in his hands. He was making faces and doing silly voice, speaking soft and slow enough not to disturb the sleeping man tucked into his side, but enough from Daisy to follow with the book tilted so she could sound out the few words they had thought her to read and pointing at the pictures.

Ali closed the door softly, everything within her relaxing at the sight of her two-favorite people, and the man that seemed to keep saving them.

‘Mama! Dada’s fireman brought me some books’, Daisy exclaimed once she spotted her mother leaning against the wall by the doorway, her little arms thrown up in excitement.

Ali had to stifle a giggle as one of her small hands smacked Evan in the face, startling him out of his nap as he peered barely at the little girl on his lap.

She watched, amusement clear on her face as Daisy chattered away about the book, not noticing her mother’s attention on the two men in the bed. Mr. Firefighter had a light blush on his handsome face at the little girls use of ‘dada’s fireman, his throat bobbing as he swallowed back whatever he wanted to say.

Evan on the other hand had just realized, when trying to nuzzle closer to the comfort of the pillow he was lying on, that he wasn’t lying on a pillow. He was lying half on the firefighter he had declared as hot and as his eyes met Ali’s and she raised her eyebrow teasingly at the younger, she watched the embarrassment and horror flit across his eyes and a blush cover his sleepy features before he covered his face with a small groan.

Daisy gasped, stopping her retelling of the story as she realized her father was awake again.

‘Dada, I woke up and your fireman was here and he so this many books for me’, she giggled, throwing her arms wide, narrowing missing smacking Evan in the face again.

‘What do we say to dada’s fireman, Daisy?’, Ali teased, stepping closer to the bed as her daughter held her arms out for a hug. She picked up her child, cuddling her close as she gazed at the firefighter.

Daisy reached out for him from her mothers’ arms as the two on the bed separated. Evan sitting up and Eddie moving away from the bed to stand.

Daisy made grabby hands, beckoning Eddie closer and once he was in reach, Ali had to scramble to balance her as Daisy wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tight before placing a kiss on his cheek, surprising not just Eddie, but Ali and Evan. Daisy had always shied away from others but here she was, smiling prettily at him as she giggled a thank you.

Ali watched as Eddie all but melted, lowering himself slightly to look Daisy in the eyes as he spoke.

‘You’re welcome princesa’, he smiled, ‘My son Chris hid a teddy bear in that bag by you daddy’s bed. It always made him feel better when he was in hospital so he said you could borrow it until you can leave’.

Daisy’s eyes widened as she squirmed in her mother’s arms, ‘Mama down! Wanna get the bear’.

Ali set her down gently, watching as she all but ran to the bag and began to search it before taking out a slightly old looking bear, pressing her face into the fur.

‘You sure your son is okay with letting her borrow it? He may never get that bear back now, hot stuff’, Buck laughed as he watched his daughter start talking to the bear, one hand shaking it’s paw in greeting as she introduced herself.

Eddie smiled, brushing a thumb against his nose, ‘Yeah, he packed that bag himself. He has CP so he’s familiar with what a pain hospitals can be. He said it can protect her until you can go home’.

Ali groaned, sitting at the edge of Evan’s bed throwing him a look, pouting a little at the reality of having to figure out how to get a home or apartment after being labelled as missing and now as a trauma survivor after multiple years of state and hotel hoping under threat of death.

‘Yeah, home’, Evan sighed, rubbing a hand over his face, ‘That’s going to be fun to figure out when released on Friday, and I don’t want to live with Maddie and her boyfriend in their one bedroom apartment only to be split from you or Daisy’.

Ali nodded understandingly. She’d rather go back through hell than be separate from Evan after everything they had been through. She needed him still and Daisy wouldn’t go anywhere with out her father now that they were free.

Eddie cleared his throat awkwardly, scratching at the back of his head as the two on the bed looked at him, waiting for whatever he had to say.

‘I have a spare room and Chris’s old supplies from when he was Daisy’s age, you’re both more than welcome to stay with me till you figure it out’, he offered almost shyly, as if he wasn’t going to say anything at first.

‘We…we couldn’t do that to you’, Evan fiddled with the blanket covering his legs, ‘It’s going to take weeks before I get control of my hidden savings account from before the…place. We can’t just mooch off you for weeks.’

Ali watched as Eddie deflated a little, obviously going to respect Evan’s wishes and drop all conversation.

However, she was sick of the white walls, of not knowing what was going to happen next, of not having a stable home, even if temporary, to raise Daisy and show her life could be beautiful.

‘Ignore him, he’s trying to be all macho and independent when his sister has already offered to help with money till the bank grants him access to his savings’, Ali smiled, quickly pressing a hand over Evan’s mouth as he went to protest her words, ‘If you don’t mind, really don’t mind opening your home to us, then we’d be delighted to stay with you till we find a place for the three of us’.

Eddie smiled, and like Ali, ignored the muffled words coming from under her hand. She didn’t blanche under Evan’s glare and simply returned it as he licked her palm to try make her remove it while she and Eddie worked out the details.

After he had left, she removed her hand, pinching one of his ears in revenge as he stared her down.

Daisy giggled from the floor, ‘Mama made you look stupid’.

Ali snorted, ‘Oh baby, Dada doesn’t need my help to look silly’.

*

Days later found Evan carefully belted into his sister’s car, mindful of the still healing bullet wound. Ali was chatting to Daisy in the back, tucked into a brand new and top of the line car seat. Or so Maddie had told him. She had admitted that she spent hours the days before his discharge researching the safest car seat for a four-year-old that was available in the LA region.

It had made his heart swell, almost like the Grinch at the end of the movie, to know his sister was already fiercely in love with and ready to protect Daisy. He knew that if anything were ever to happen to him or Ali, that his big sister would be there for his daughter, fighting away any monsters just as she had done for him as a child.

He had to blink away tears as he stared at her, letting Ali and Daisy fill the car with noise and sign along to the music on the radio using gibberish words. He still couldn’t believe, after nearly two weeks, that she was here. That he was still alive and free, and his big sister still looked at him with as much love and care in her eyes as she had when he was a child.

‘What’s going on in that big brain of yours Buckaroo?’, Maddie asked softly as they stopped at a red light, the nickname making Evan laugh wetly, looking away from his sister at the bright evening sky.

‘God I haven’t been called that in years’, Evan smiled, remembering when he had told his mother that Evan was a stuffy old mans name and that he was ‘Buck’, like the animal cause he was going to grow up big and strong. His mother had simply ignored him, his father had yelled. Maddie had wiped the tears and blood from his face and dropped the name Evan when they were alone.

She had told him that with her, he could always be himself.

‘You hated being called Buckaroo back then too’, Maddie teased, lightening the mood that was befalling her little brother, ‘You used to roll those blue eyes and go ‘God Madeline, it’s Buck, not Buckaroo okay’’

Evan snorted at her dramatics, turning to raise an eyebrow at her while she simply smirked at him.

‘I think Buck suits you more than Evan’ Ali added, leaning between the seats t pinch his cheek, ‘Plus Buckaroo just makes you see so cute, isn’t Dada Buckaroo cute baby?’

‘Dada Buckaroo!’ Daisy laughed from behind him.

Evan had never felt as betrayed in his life as he did hearing his daughter side with her mother and his sister as they all burst into laughter around him.

He had never felt this type of happiness and content either, but he wasn’t about to tell Ali or Maddie that.

‘I see how it is Daisy, I guess someone is going to have to get a visit from the tickle monster when this car stops!’ he teased, twisting in his seat to wiggle his fingers at his daughter. He watched as she gasped, blue eyes wide and laughter spilling from her tiny body which was squirming as if it was already being tickled.

‘Dada no!’, she laughed, squeezing the teddy bear in her lap closer to her, ‘Don’t be mean or I won’t give kisses!’

It was Evans turn to gasp dramatically, clutching a hand to his chest as he stared over his seta and shoulder at his daughter who threw him an adorable attempt at a glare, ‘You wouldn’t do that to dada, Daisy’

Daisy crossed her arms over her chest in a way that reminded him so much of Ali, ‘Let me, Mama and Aunt Madsy call you Buck, or no kisses Dada, but only me can call you Buckaroo’.

Maddie watched as something in her brother shifted slightly, a tension so small she had barely noticed it slipping away as he gave his daughter a smile Maddie hadn’t seen since he had woken up.

It was small but confident and playful, a hint of the cheek he had developed after asserting himself with a new name as kid was back as he pretended to hum and haw over his daughter’s words.

‘Okay you win baby’ Buck laughed, reaching back to link his pinky with hers in a pinky promise.

Maddie smiled to herself as he turned back towards the front of the car, throwing her a lopsided grin and tilting his head in question.

She shook her head, muttering a soft, ‘Welcome home Buck’

*

Buck had been shocked when they arrived at Eddie’s home.

They’d expected to meet Eddie and his son who had promised pizza and some cake to celebrate their release. Maybe Chimney, Maddie’s fiancé, if he had gotten off shift in time, but that wasn’t what they were greeted with.

Maddie had walked in ahead of him, Ali and Daisy who was standing between the two of them, holding their hands tightly as they approached the house.

He had not expected her to turn around with a soft, ‘Surprise!’, as they trio walked into Eddie’s open plan living room, only to be greet by the rest of the team that had saved them and the lieutenant that had taken down Doug, saving his life.

A banner was hung across the room, glitter and paint spelling out ‘Welcome Home Ali, Evan and Daisy’. It even had a drawing of a pink daisy after her name, making his daughter gasp as she pointed at the flower excitedly.

Eddie was grinning at him from the middle of the group, a young boy no older than eight balancing on crutches by his side. Neither he nor Maddie looked slightly sorry over deceiving them.

And Buck, Buck couldn’t fault them for this.

All these people, people who had seen him at his worst. People who had seen firsthand the horror he and Ali had survived, who had probably spent the week checking update through their officer friend on the case, had shown up to welcome them into their family.

Someone he had bled on two weeks ago and stupidly flirted with while dying, had opened his doors and given him a temporary home.

These people were genuinely happy to see Buck doing well, to meet his daughter as she ducked behind his or Ali’s legs shyly.

He was wanted. Evan Buckley had never been wanted by more than one person before and he didn’t know how to thank these people for the kindness they were showing him.

No sooner than he had entered the house, Ali had been whisked away by Maddie to see the room Eddie had prepared for them and set down the minimal belongings they had.

Eddie had greeted him and Daisy, introducing her to his son Christopher and it had melted Buck’s heart watching them.

Christopher had looked at him and Daisy, his own curls wild and his eyes bright with happiness as he asked Buck could he show Daisy his other toys.

Daisy had nervously looked at him, tugging at his pants before whispering that she had wanted to go but was scared to be without him or Ali.

He had simply picked her up, explaining that she was a little shy and was it okay if he came with them to look at the toys.

Christopher had simply given him a sunny smile before leading him to his room. He had teddies lined up in a circle around a plastic tea set on a mat in his room, transformers and power rangers lining some selves and on his desk was a half-finished fire truck made of Legos.

It had almost made him cry watching his daughter’s confusion over all these toys Christopher was explaining to them. She had never had more than a hand full of crayons and the occasional doll, unless Doug had been upset and decided she didn’t deserve any toys and destroyed them.

After a few minutes, Daisy had placed her hands on her hips and stated, ‘Dada, you can go now, Chris can teach me how to play with these’.

Buck had let out a startled laugh, leaning down to place a kiss on her soft curls before making her pinky promise to come find him or Ali if she needed anything.

Chris had simply smiled at him again, filling the room with sunshine, promising, ‘I’ll take care of her’.

Upon re-entering the living room, his eyes met Ali’s from across the room as she smiled softly at him. She relaxed when she saw him, obviously feeling the same overwhelming sensations as he had been since he had waked into the house.

He had made to walk towards her when he was intercepted by Maddie’s Captain, he’d introduced himself as Bobby, took one look at him and steered Buck towards the kitchen with a kind hand on his shoulders.

‘You’re too skinny son, let’s get you some food before these heathens eat everything’, Bobby smiled.

Eddie watched as his Captain led a stunned but smiling Evan towards the kitchen. The younger man had looked big in the tiny hospital bed but the shirt he had on him, issued by the hospital, hung from his broad shoulders, giving away how slim he was for his height.

‘Thank you for this’, Ali whispered from where she had snuck up beside him, her eyes tracking Evan’s movement as well as his.

Eddie shrugged, smiling down at the tiny brunette, ‘It’s nothing, really’.

Ali shook her head, hand straying to twist her straight strands around her finger, ‘It really isn’t nothing Eddie. You’ve given us a place to get our lives together, to start recovering. You’ve given him a chance at a home, that means the world to him, and me’.

Eddie recalled the sobbed confessions from the waiting room. They had known Maddie’s childhood had been far from picturesque. She had admitted drunkenly once that her father was cruel and heavy-handed man while her mother simply didn’t care. He could see her reaction to the 118 rallying behind her as a family in the expression in Evan’s eyes when he’d walked in.

He was looking for a family, a place in the world to feel secure. And Eddie ached to help him find what he had found with the 118, what Maddie had found with them.

‘We all need family, and sometimes all you need is a chance’, Eddie shrugged, taking a sip of his beer. He glanced at her again, taking in the happy smile that chased away the tiredness in her eyes, ‘It must be nice too for you two to get to be a family without living in fear. You two can finally breath and start a life together’.

Ali, who had taken a drag of her own drink promptly choked on it, coughing as she tried not to laugh around the burning in her throat.

‘Oh man, that’s funny’, Ali giggled, slapping Eddie’s arm playfully, ‘Me and Evan’

Eddie stared in confusion as she continued to laugh before she noticed the look on Eddie’s face.

‘Eddie, Evan and I aren’t together’ Ali smiled, watching as Evan reappeared, chatting with Bobby, plate of food in hand, ‘We have a beautiful daughter together and I would burn the world for both of them, but I am gayer than a rainbow flag and that boy maybe bisexual but he swings towards men with the grace of a wrecking ball’

This time it was Eddie’s turn to choke on his drink as Ali laughed.

*

‘Hiding from the masses?’, a voice teased, startling Buck out of his thoughts as he sat on the garden bench against the back of Eddie’s house.

He looked up as Eddie sat down beside him, handing Buck a bottle of water.

Buck shrugged, holding the cold bottle against his throat, sighing when he felt it begin to numb the burning, he felt from speaking so much in the last hour and a bit.

‘It’s a little overwhelming, all the people even though everyone is so nice and technically I am not meant to talk for extended period of time yet’, Buck whispered, throwing a smirk at Eddie as he let his head rest back against the cool wall.

Eddie simply nodded, playing with the label on his beer bottle, giving Buck an understanding look, ‘I felt the same after coming back from my last tour. My family threw this huge party, but I was newly traumatized and state side. I loved it, but I also just wanted to sleep after about thirty minutes, so I understand man’

Buck let out a sigh of relief, throwing him a grateful look. He hadn’t wanted to insult Eddie after he had been kind enough to take them in.

‘It’s just be a long few years and I guess seeing this, it just reminds me what I missed out on, but hey, that’s on me for marrying a guy at 18 who was showing interest in me when my voice hadn’t even broken yet’, Buck laughed sadly, looking away at the night sky.

The silence hung between them, threatening to become as overwhelming as the atmosphere inside the house.

And then Eddie spoke.

‘Nothing that happened Evan was your fault. You wanted out of a bad situation and someone promised to love you and show you the world, no one can fault you for anything that happened’, Eddie spoke clearly and true, his voice conveying nothing but facts as he spoke, ‘You were taken advantage of, you were betrayed, but from what I hear, you gave them hell, and you have won.’

Buck sniffed, smiling softly as he brushed away a stray tear. He liked that. He had won.

Doug had once told him nobody would understand him or want him after what he had done to him. Yet here was living breathing proof that someone understood him. That they saw him and he had won.

‘I won’, he whispered softly, almost in amazement as Eddie gazed at him, ‘What do I do now?’.

Eddie shrugged, smiling as he knocked his shoulder against the other mans before standing, ‘Whatever you want to Evan. Just live’.

Eddie turned to go inside, leaving the younger man to gather his thoughts and emotions when a hand caught his wrist, tugging him back slightly with a gentle pull.

He gazed down at the younger man, almost being blinded by the smile he was greeted with. Evan’s eyes misty with unshed tears and hope.

‘It’s Buck, call me Buck’, he asked so softly Eddie might have missed it as his hand slid from Eddie’s wrist.

For a brief second, Eddie caught his hand, squeezing gently, ‘Okay Buck’.

And then he was moving, walking back through the door that was left slightly open, allowing laughter and conversation to spill out into the dimly lit garden.

He stood, stretching and settling the bottle down on the bench.

From his position he could see through the kitchen and into the living room. He watched as Daisy excitedly showed Chris a drawing she was working, the boy smiling and showing her his. Ali relaxed for once in the years Buck had known her sat nearby, his sister a steady presence by his side and Eddie standing with his back towards Buck, speaking with someone out of sight.

The older man’s words ran through his mind.

Live.

All he had thought about for so long was survival. Not always his, but the others kept with him. His daughters. Ali’s because Daisy would need a mother if Buck never made it. Somewhere along the line, among the multitude of things his late husband had stolen from him was his ability to live. To stop thinking and working towards surviving another night. And he desperately wanted it back.

His chest ached with the need to just live. To exist and do things because he could, to walk in daylight and enjoy the sounds of a city he had yet to explore. He wanted to get re-certified, follow the dreams he had had at 18 before Doug. He wanted to be someone Daisy would look at in her adulthood and think, wow, that’s my dad.

The seed of hope in his chest loosened the fear that had taken place once Doug’s control had been removed from him and the reigns were handed back to him.

He gazed in at his daughter, his best friend and sister, the people who didn’t know him but wanted to and took a step towards living.

And that’s when he felt it.

The chill down his spine, the goosebumps rising rapidly on his arms, the soft whispering feeling of what was too warm to be a night breeze on the back of his neck.

The press of the barrel of a gun against the base of his spine and a voice made fear induced sweat break out across his forehead.

‘I found you Evan’

**Author's Note:**

> Hey Guys!
> 
> Thank you for all your kind words and encouragement!
> 
> This installment is somewhat more story building and character establishment so I hope it didn't bore you guys and I can't wait to write the next installment!


End file.
